Saturday, December 14, 2013

The good news: I didn't ruin the party...

There were some pictures posted online from last night's NY Improv 50th Anniversary party. I wasn't in any of them. No, I wasn't being elusive, I wasn't invited. Ouch. I would like to think that someone had it in for me or some axe to grind, I fear that wasn't the case. More likely scenario: it was word of mouth and no one thought to tell me. Part of my Invisibilization. Not since I was frosted for the TEEN WOLF reunion have I felt so marginalized, but more on that later. I don't do stand-up any more but then neither do most of the people I saw in the pictures. But I guess I don't talk to anyone as much as I think I do. Being religious can be isolating, that's without taking into account the raising of a family and having a job and all the time that they all take up. I'm just sad about it, certainly some of my best times come from hanging out at the Improv (NY, LA not so much) and I dearly love a lot of the folks who were there last night. Also, I missed my opportunity to compare myself and my career to everyone at the party and then find a way to feel shitty by being on the short end of said comparisons. Ughhh.I'm kind of excited at the idea that I care about missing out on something, it's pretty rare that I feel that way as a grown-up. During my Improv days, I remember thinking it didn't get any better than this. I'm not saying that things aren't terrific now I'm just saying that I didn't even have to look back to realize how much fun I was having it the time. I hope someone has an excuse for a party soon. Judy?

TEEN WOLF, in contrast, was NOT fun at the time. The best part was that I got to work with my friend Mark Arnold who played the bad guy. But everything else kind of sucked. Everyone was invested in hierarchy and as "Coach's assistant who had one line, cut after the first day" I ranked very low on the totem pole. To paraphrase an old show biz saying, there are no small parts but that's the way we're going to treat you. The guy playing Stiles, it turns out, was the guy that an ex-girlfriend went for after she dumped me. Michael J. Fox and me were actually kind of friends before TEEN WOLF and not so much after. Oh, I did have some fun - I sat next to Jay Tarses (the Coach) who was hilarious, and made up most of his lines. Casting director Paul Ventura, who I also like, called to tell me about said reunion. He gave me the director's number, and the director never called me back. So let's say I was semi-invited but, unlike the Improv party, I really didn't want to go.The last laugh on Teen Wolf, of course, is I still continue to receive hundreds of dollars in residuals every year, for the last 25 years. It makes me wish I had figured out how to get into more evergreen type movies.